Method and apparatus for heating and supplying feed-water to boilers.



C. W. E! CLARKE 6;]. V. SANTRY. TUS FOR HEATING AND SUPPLYIN G FEEDWATER T0 BOILERS. APPHCATION man J N. 23. I9

Patented Jan. 22,1918.

[72?)87230 k a, 5, M *U PATEN CHARLES WwE. CLARKE, F BROOKLINE,-

Am) :rosnrn in-SANTRY, or RoxBUnY;

MASSACHUSETTS.

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR HEATING AND SUPPLYING FEED-WATER T0 BOILERS.

To all whom it may concern: y

Be it known that we, CHARLES W. E. CLARKE and Josnrn Y. SANTR -citizensof. the United States, residing, respectively, at

Brooltline, in the county of Norfolk and- .State of Massachusetts, andat Roxbury, 1n

' the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a newand useful Improvement in Methods and Apparatus for Heating andSupplying FeedJVater to Boilers, of which the following is aspecitication.

. boiler pressure, whereas at the present time a pressure of 250 poundsis not uncommon and pressures of even 300 and 350 pounds arecontemplated in new plants.- This increase in steam pressure of coursemeans that the line gases leaving the boiler must be at a much highertemperature than in the .installations designed, to operate at lowerpressures." The .increase in economy derived by operating turbines athigh pressures is thus offset to some extent by the increase in the lossof heatin the flue gases. The attempts .to reduce this loss by usingeconomizers. with these high pressure .installations have not beenentirely satisfactory due to the fact .that the feed water has tobeforced through'the economizers at a pressure somewhat higher than theboiler pressure, and it appears to be 1mpract1ca1 40 to buildeconon'iizers capableot' withstanding these high pressures.

The present invention aims to devise a method and a system for heatingand supplying feed water to boilers which will permit the use ofeconomizers in high pressure installations and at the sametiine willovercome the dilliculties heretofore experienced in' using apparatus ofthis 'cluiracter. It is also an object of this invention to devise meansfor automatically distributing the supply of feed water to the boilersand economizers in accordance with the requirements of the individualboilers.

The manner in which it is proposed .to

-it ,into the boilers,

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Jan,-

Application filed J anuary 23, 1917. Serial No. 144,041.

accomplish these objects will bereadily understood from the followingdescription of one embodiment of theinvention andv the novel featureswill be pointed out in theap v boilers indicated, respectively, at B andB,

each boiler having its own economizerindicated at E and E, respectively.The flue gases from the two boilers pass through their respectiveeconomizers and then to-tlie boilers in two stages, one stage servingtov raise the pressure of the water to a pressure as high as it isdesirable to carry in the feconomizers; andthe second pump taking thewater from the economizers and forcing In the system shown,

According to the present in-1.

rentiouthe feed water is pumpedinto the I the feed water is conductedfrom the supply through a pipe 4 to a pump 6 which forces 1:

the water through a header 8 to the econ omizers, the branch from theheader to the econoinizer E being indicated at 9, and the.

branch to the econoinizer E being shown I at 10. An outlet pipe 11 fromthe economizer E and a similar outlet 12 from the economizer E lead thewater to another header lat which conducts the water to a second pump15.

pipes 17 and 18,-respectively.

The outlet pipe 16 from i this pump delivers the water to boiler inletable type and may. be driven in any con-,

i'enieutiuanner, but preferablythey are of the rotary type and are bothdriven bypa suitable motorQO, such as a steam turbine or eleetrlc motor.Assuming, for lnstance,

that the normal boiler pressure is 250 pounds, the feed water pressurewould normally be about 275 pounds. The firstpump (5 may be designed toforce the writer through the conomizers E and E'afia pressure of saypounds; the second pump 15 then takes this water and raises its pressurean additional 175 pounds thus forcing it into the boilers. Theditliculty' heretofore encountered of subjecting the economizers Toboiler pressure thus is avoided The pressure maintained in theecononuzers can be made anytlnngthat 1s practical or desirable butobviously will be made a high enough to prevent the water fromvaporizing in the economizers. It is obviously desirable to distributethe 6 water returning to the boilers in accordance with the feed waterrequirements of the res'pective boilers. At the same time it isdesirable to so distribute the flow of water through the economizersthat the econo 10 mizer for the boiler carrying the heavier load, andconsequently receiving the greater supply of flue gases, will be given agreater amount of water to heat than the other economizer. Accordinglythe present in- 1 vention provides a controlling apparatusv whlichaccomplishes these objects automativ cal y. g I Referring again to thedrawings it will be seen that a valve 22 is connected in the outlet pipe11 from the economizer E- and a similar valve 23 is connected in thepipe 12 leading from the economizer E. Addi: tional valves 24 and 25,respectively, are located in the respective inlet pipes 17 and 25 18 tothe boilers B and B. Eachboiler is i ped 1vith an apparatus responsiveautomatically to changes in the height of the water in the boiler, whichis arranged to operate the pair of valves, just describerhthat 80control the supply of feed water to it. Fe? --this .purpose .a Copesthermostatic feed water regulator may conveniently be used andaccordingly an apparatus of this charac- .ter is shown.v This regulatorcomprises an inclined expansion tube 28 supported in a triangular frameconsisting-of a, relatively heavy angle iron base 29, a forked upright30 at one end of this base, and a tension rod 31 forming the other sideof the triangle;

'40 Two braces 32 and 33 also aid in support ing the expansion tube 28and prevent it from buckling. The upper end of this tube is connected tothe steam space in the boiler and its lowerend is connected to a pointin 46 the boiler below the lowest water level, while the ends of thetube are located at substantially the maximum and minimum water levelswhich it is desired to have maintained .,in the boiler,,-,' The lowerend of the expan sion tube 28 'abuts against a bracket fast on thepart'29 and the upper end of this tube. carries. a fitting which bearsagainst the short'arm of a bell crank lever that is fulcrumed in theupper forked end of the 66 upright 30. The long arm of this lever 35' ofthe regulator used with the boiler B is connected by a link 36 with theoperating {levers of the two valves 22' and 24, while thecorrespondngarm of the regulator with which the boiler B is equipped issimilarly connected by a link 37 to the valves 23 and 25. Y

The operation of a feed water regulator of this character is wellunderstood by those skilled in this art It is merely necessary by theliberationof latent heat as the steam .hand, thepart of the tube filledwith water temperature.

permitting a greater portion of the feed through the header 16 by thepump 15 thus shown in which each boiler has its own in- 'here to statethat the part of the expansion tube filled with steam ismaintainedsubstantially at the temperature of'the steam H condenses dueto radiation. On the other is at some temperature below steam temperature since the radiation of heat from this part of the tube cantake'place only at the expense of the actual temperature of the water.Consequently, as the water level in the boiler B drops, this levcl-inthetube 28 of the regulator for this boiler also drops and a greater partof the tube'thus becomes filled with steamand consequently a largerportion of the tube is maintained at steam- The tube thus expands andlifts the outer end of the lever more or less'thus opening the valves 22and 24 and water to flow into the boiler ll. Conversely,

when the water level in the boiler B rises,

the length of th steam column in the. expansion. tube 28 will be-decreased, thus causing the tube to contract and acting through theconnections with the valves 22 and 24 to close them and reduce the Howof feed water to the boiler. The regulator for the boiler B of courseoperates in a similar manner; and the' water forced is distributed tothe two boilers in accord ance with their'relative feed water require;ments. At the same time this arrangement distributes the flow of feedwater between the economizers in accordance-with the conditionsobtaining in the two boilers sothat the economizer which is handling thelarger volume of flue gases will be given a larger part ofthe feed water.toheat.

While two boilers and two economizers have been shown in theaccompanying drawing, it is obvicus thatthe system is equally applicableto a larger number of units. It is, also evident that the feature ofautomatically distributing the feed water between the boilers isapplicable to a system in which a single economizer-is used' for all orseveral of the boilers instead of a system liketh'at dividualeconomizer.

It is obvious that the details of con struction of the systenr and thecharacter of the elements employed in it will vary somewhat with therequirements of {difierent installations and with the preferences ofindividual useisand that muchlatitude in makingzchangesof this characteris 'permissible without'departingfrom the splrit or scope of thisinventio l Vhat is claimed as new, is 1 r 1. A system of the characterdescribed comprising the combination with a plurality of boilers and aneconomizer for each of said boilers, of means for forcing feed water 130through said economizers at a relatively high pressure, additional meansarranged to take the water from said economizers and force it into saidboilers, and automatic means constructed and arranged to distributetheflow of water to said boilers and also to said economizers in accordancewith the relative feed Water requirements of said boilers.

2. A system of the character described, comprising the combination witha plurality of boilers, an economizer for each of said boilers and pipeconnections for leading feed water to said economizcrs and from theeconomizers to the boilers, of a pump for forcing the feed water intothe economizers,

a second pump for forcing the feed water of boilers, an economizer foreach of saidboilers and pipe connections for leading feed water to saideconomizers and from the economizers to the boilers, of a pump forforcing the feed water into the economizers, .a second pump for forcingthe feed water from the economizers into the boilers, a

valve in the outlet of each economizer, all-- other valve in the feedwater inlet to each boiler, and an automatic water regulator for eachboiler connected to both of said valves for its respective economizerand boiler and operating to close oropen them simultaneously as thewater in the boiler rises or falls. 1

41 A system of the character described, comprising the combination witha plurality of boilers, an economizer for each of said boilers and pipeconnections for leading feed water to said economizers and from theeconomize-rs to the boilers, of a pump for forcing the feed ater intothe economizers, a second pump for forcing the feed water from theeconomizers into the boilers, valve means controlling the flow of waterthrough each economizer and to its respective boiler, and thermostaticfeed water regulators for said boilers arranged to operate said valvemeans in accordance with the feed Water requirements of the respectiveboilers.

5. A system of the character described, comprising the combination witha plurality of boilers, an economizer for each of said boilers and pipeconnections for leading feed water to said economizers and from theeconomizers to the boilers, of a rotary pump for forcing the feed waterinto the economizers, a second rotary pump arranged to force the feedwater from the economizers into the boilers, a steam motor arranged todrive both of said pumps, and. automatic means responsive to variations"in the height of the water in said boilers for controlling thedistribution of the Water both. to the economizers and to the boilers.

6. The method of heating and supplying feed water to a plurality ofboilers, which consists in using an economizer with each boiler, pumpingthe feed water into the economizers at substantially as high pressure asit is desirable to maintain in the econo mixers, pumping the feed waterfrom the economizers into the boilers at-substantially boiler pressure.and automatically distributing the flow of feed water between theeconomizers and also between the boilersin response to variations in theheight of the water in the individual boilers.

7. The method of heating and supplying feed water to a plurality ofboilers which consists in using an. economizer for each boiler, forcingfeed water into the economizers at substa'lntially as high a pressure asit is desi-able to maintain in said economizers, forcing the feed Waterfrom the economizersinto the boilers, and automatically distributing theflow of feed water to the economizers and also to the boilers inaccordance with the relative fee d water re quirements of the boilers.

In testimony whereof we have hereunto signed this specification. CHARLESW. E. CLARKE.

JOSEPH V. SANTRY.

